The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Richard Harries, has called on the media to stop giving the National Health Service such a bad press, writes Nigel Hanson.

He criticised the way attention has focused on a series of accidents, with the effect that the whole medical profession was being tarred with the same brush.

In particular, he singled out national newspapers for criticism, saying a relentless onslaught of negative reporting over the past six months had left morale among doctors and nurses very low.

Bishop Harries said: "The vast majority of people who work for the NHS at all levels do a very dedicated, professional job.

"It is a great pity that when accidents do happen, as they do from time to time, the whole profession is besmirched.

"The NHS has a highly dedicated workforce, and people do not go into it for the money. Many of the professionals are under huge pressure, particularly junior doctors."

He said there were now stories "almost every day in the press" concentrating only on problems and mishaps, the most recent concerning the accidental injection of a painkiller into a patient's vein rather than the spine.

He added: "The Alder Hey story was perhaps the worst, but there has been a whole series over the past six months, particularly in the national print media.

"I have been contacted by chaplains in Oxford who are worried about the effect it will have on morale."

The media had had a similar damaging effect on the teaching profession, he said.